When Emma Roberts met Evan Peters on the set of "Adult World" in Syracuse two winters ago, she thought he didn't like her. It turns out he was just bad at flirting.

Peters reveals in a new interview with Vulture that he had a crush on Roberts while they were filming the indie comedy in February 2012. They began dating a few months later and are now engaged, but it almost didn't happen because he salted his own game in the Salt City.

"I didn't really know how to approach her or talk to her or any of that stuff," Peters told the publication. "I kept saying the wrong thing. I was really kind of awkward and stupid and like, 'Oh God, this is just not working out well. I'm just going to shut up and not talk.'"

The 27-year-old actor added that he tried to make jokes, but the 23-year-old niece of Julia Roberts wasn't laughing.

"You know how when you like somebody and then you say things, kind of like a fifth grader?" Peters told Vulture. "You like the person so you kind of tease them a little bit or you joke around a little bit? Emma didn't get that I was joking, so it just kind of came off all wrong."

The couple has been together since shortly after wrapping production in Central New York, though the relationship hit a bump last year when Roberts was arrested for domestic violence in a "misunderstanding" at a hotel. Peters reportedly proposed to Roberts over the holidays, and she wore a diamond ring on her wedding finger at the Golden Globes last month.

The two have since gone on to co-star in "American Horror Story: Coven," where they filmed a threesome scene with Taissa Farmiga, the younger sister of Syracuse University alumna Vera Farmiga. Peters called it "awkward" and "super weird," according to E! News, but said it felt like being in an acting class together.

In the movie "Adult World," Roberts plays a broke college graduate who takes a job at a porn shop to make ends meet until she can become a famous writer. Peters plays the store manager, and a romance ensues between the two on screen.

"Adult World," also starring John Cusack, Cloris Leachman, Shannon Woodward and Armando Riesco, will be released in NYC and L.A. theaters on Friday, Feb. 14. The rest of the country can see it starting on Valentine's Day through iTunes, Amazon and other Video On Demand outlets.

Producer Justin Nappi, a Jamesville-DeWitt High School graduate, hosted the local premiere at the Syracuse International Film Festival last fall, but the film isn't scheduled for a wide release in Central New York. The Palace Theater in Eastwood will show the movie for one night only on Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Reviews have been mixed, but recent critics have given "Adult World" a thumbs up. The New York Post recently praised Cusack as "darkly funny" and a Village Voice writer originally from Syracuse saluted director Scott Coffey for "captur[ing] the beauty and safety of living in a smallish place where people know and care about you."